Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates said North Korea is unlikely to ever give up all its nuclear weapons, and that President Donald Trump was right to walk away from deal with leader Kim Jong-un in February.

In an interview with CBS that taped on May 10, Gates said North Koreans have come to see some modest nuclear capabilities as “essential to their national survival.”

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday the Trump administration is eager to “get back to the table” for nuclear weapons negotiations with North Korea — one day after leader Kim Jong Un oversaw a barrage of weapons launches from the rogue state’s coast into the sea.

“We still believe that there's an opportunity to get a negotiated outcome where we get fully verified denuclearization. Chairman Kim has repeated that,” Pompeo told host Jonathan Karl on ABC’s “This Week.”

Both leaders have high hopes for their first one-on-one meeting: Kim for a win after his failed second summit with U.S. President Donald Trump and Putin for a chance to raise Moscow’s clout in the region and gain more leverage with Washington.

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea confirmed Tuesday that leader Kim Jong Un will soon visit Russia to meet with President Vladimir Putin in a summit that comes at a crucial moment for tenuous diplomacy meant to rid the North of its nuclear arsenal.

North Korea has so far not gotten what it wants most from the recent flurry of high-level summitry between Kim and various world leaders — namely, relief from crushing international sanctions. There are fears that a recent North Korean weapon test and a series of jibes at Washington over deadlocked nuclear negotiations mean that Pyongyang may again return to the nuclear and long-range missile tests that had many in Asia fearing war in 2017.

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said Thursday that it had test-fired a new type of “tactical guided weapon,” its first such test in nearly half a year, and demanded that Washington remove Secretary of State Mike Pompeo from nuclear negotiations.

The test, which didn’t appear to be of a banned mid- or long-range ballistic missile that could scuttle negotiations, allows Pyongyang to show its people it is pushing ahead with weapons development while also reassuring domestic military officials worried that diplomacy with Washington signals weakness.

President Donald Trump tweeted Saturday that a third summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “would be good,” writing glowingly of his relationship with the despot and adding that he anticipates the day the repressive state becomes “one of the most successful nations” on Earth.

“I agree with Kim Jong Un of North Korea that our personal relationship remains very good, perhaps the term excellent would be even more accurate, and that a third Summit would be good in that we fully understand where we each stand,” Trump wrote online just before 8 a.m. in Washington.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday he is “confident” the United States will hold another summit with North Korea to further denuclearization talks, a follow-up to President Donald Trump’s fruitless meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in February.

"I am confident there will be" a third summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un, Pompeo said Friday in response to a question from "CBS This Morning" anchor Norah O'Donnell. The secretary of State was quick to add that he did not know when such a summit might occur.

President Donald Trump will host South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the White House in April for a summit on North Korean nuclear diplomacy.

The White House confirmed the visit in a statement released Thursday, saying the two leaders will meet April 11 to "discuss the latest developments regarding the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea as well as bilateral matters."

This story is being published by POLITICO as part of a content partnership with the South China Morning Post. It first appeared on scmp.com on March 25, 2019.

The U.S. envoy for North Korea is visiting Beijing this week, a sign Washington seeks China’s help in reviving nuclear disarmament negotiations after the summit meeting in Vietnam between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un collapsed last month.

This story is being published by POLITICO as part of a content partnership with the South China Morning Post. It first appearedon scmp.com on March 18, 2019.

As talks between Washington and Pyongyang on denuclearization appear to have stalled after last month’s summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ended without agreement, South Korea is looking for ways to end the impasse.

PYONGYANG, North Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will soon decide whether to continue diplomatic talks and maintain his moratorium on missile launches and nuclear tests, a senior North Korean official said Friday, adding that the U.S. threw away a golden opportunity at the recent summit between their leaders.

Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui, addressing a meeting of diplomats and foreign media, including The Associated Press, in Pyongyang said the North was deeply disappointed by the failure of the two sides to reach any agreements at the Hanoi summit between Kim and President Donald Trump.

National security adviser John Bolton defended Donald Trump after the president's failed nuclear weapons summit with North Korea's leader last week.

“I think it was unquestionably a success for the United States because the president protected, defended American interests,” Bolton said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” of the summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vietnam.

President Donald Trump delivered a scorched-earth speech to conservative activists on Saturday, calling the Russia investigation "bullshit," adopting a southern accent to mock his former attorney general, and asserting that some members of Congress "hate our country."

The rollicking two-hour-plus appearance at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland offered the president a brief respite from an otherwise miserable week in which his much-touted summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un ended in failure and his former personal lawyer delivered explosive testimony to Congress.

President Donald Trump on Friday defended himself against criticism that he gave North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a pass for the death of American student Otto Warmbier — including from Warmbier's parents — saying "of course" he holds the regime responsible.

The president in a series of tweets said he never likes "being misinterpreted, but especially when it comes to Otto Warmbier and his great family," adding that "the previous Administration did nothing, and he was taken on their watch."

President Donald Trump on Friday downplayed any dissonance between the United States and North Korea after nuclear talks with Kim Jong Un fell apart earlier this week without a deal.

“Great to be back from Vietnam, an amazing place,” Trump tweeted. “We had very substantive negotiations with Kim Jong Un - we know what they want and they know what we must have. Relationship very good, let’s see what happens!”

Time is not on President Donald Trump’s side if he still hopes to put a stop to North Korea’s nuclear weapons ambitions after the collapseof his summit with Kim Jong Un.

Negotiators seeking to lay new groundwork for a potential agreement will probably have to proceed in a far more plodding fashion than the breakneck pace of the diplomatic process that relied so heavily on Trump and Kim's personal involvement over the past year, former diplomats and veterans of North Korea policy said Thursday.